


Tremble

by Kei (strawberryjambouree)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Scoliosis, Scoliosis is when your spine makes an s-shape, just so you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-26 20:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6255475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberryjambouree/pseuds/Kei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kenma stares at him, breathing slowly. Kuroo can tell he's doing his six-count breathing exercizes, the ones he does to calm him when he's anxious. Finally he opens his mouth, but only a croak escapes. He coughs. The tremor it sends through him makes his eyes scrunch up in pain. Kuroo can feel his heart twisting.</p><p>"It's my back," Kenma finally whimpers. "It hurts so bad. I can't even stand up for more than a minute, it hurts. It hurts." He lets Kuroo tentatively stroke his hair. "What am I supposed to do? I tried cracking it this morning but I think I made it worse. And I don't want to go to the doctor..." His voice dies.</p><p> </p><p>—Kenma gets hurt and Kuroo's there to kiss it all better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tremble

Kenma's been gritting his teeth all day, sucking in breaths too fast, flinching too often. Kuroo's noticed, of course he has, but Kenma flat-out refuses to tell him what's wrong. It's not until they arrive at Kenma's house and flop down on the bed, Kenma wincing at the impact, that Kuroo finally raises his voice a bit.

"Kenma, you've been in pain all day. Please tell me what's wrong." Kuroo can hear the begging tone of his voice and hates it a little, but he's getting desperate.

Kenma shifts off his left shoulder and onto his back, clamping his mouth resolutely shut. His arm shakes. "I'm not in pain."

"Babe, it's real obvious. Tell me and I can try to fix it, please." Kuroo reaches out to touch Kenma, but he flinches away, looking immediately guilty for the hurt twinge to his boyfriend's tightly-drawn features. "Kenma?"

Kenma stares at him, breathing slowly. Kuroo can tell he's doing his six-count breathing exercizes, the ones he does to calm him when he's anxious. Finally he opens his mouth, but only a croak escapes. He coughs. The tremor it sends through him makes his eyes scrunch up in pain. Kuroo can feel his heart twisting.

"It's my back," Kenma finally whimpers. "It hurts so bad. I can't even stand up for more than a minute, it hurts. It _hurts._ " He lets Kuroo tentatively stroke his hair. "What am I supposed to do? I tried cracking it this morning but I think I made it worse. And I don't want to go to the doctor..." His voice dies.

Kuroo feels like he's dying with it. Kenma doesn't have the best experience with doctors by any stretch. He's terrified of needles, and not once, but _twice_ he was prescribed anxiety meds of the wrong strength and nearly died of overdose. Kuroo remembers both days like yesterday, how pale he was against the sterile-white hospital sheets, dwarfed in pillows and so, so scared; the second time, he was so full of suffocating fear he wouldn't let anyone, not even Kuroo, anywhere remotely near him. But he pushes the memories away and focuses back on the Kenma now, the Kenma he's going to have to convince to go to the doctor's.

"Babe, this kind of doctor is going to be a lot different," he starts, fighting to keep his voice soothing and level.

"No. More. Doctors," Kenma hisses, drawing back away from Kuroo even more.

" _Yes_ doctors, or you are going to be in pain for god knows how long, and I can't even handle one day of this, it's breaking my fucking heart into pieces, Kenma, I can't _stand_ you looking like this!" Kuroo snaps, voice cracking. "I don't want you to hurt anymore. Something might really be wrong and I can't let it get worse. Please, baby, take care of yourself, or let me take care of you, anything to make it not hurt anymore." His voice drops to a murmur and he runs his thumb over Kenma's cheekbone. "If you hate me after this, then so be it. I'm telling your mom about this, and we're going to make it better, okay? Please, I just want to make it better."

Kenma's breathing is harsh, but he stills. "Stay with me the whole time?"

"Of course."

He swallows thickly. "Okay." He allows Kuroo to kiss his forehead, painstakingly careful to not jostle him. He presses his own lips to the underside of the older boy's jaw and shakily whispers, "Make it better, Kuroo."

 

* * *

 

 

"Scoliosis?" Kuroo looks at Kenma's mother blankly. The clinic's waiting area smells like cleaning fluids and he hates it, but he knows Kenma must hate it more.

"From being curled up in a ball all the time. His spine didn't form correctly, it's an S-shape near the bottom. He's going to have to be careful with his posture for the rest of his life so that it doesn't get worse."

Kuroo licks his dry lips. He can't look away from pale, pale Kenma, who can't look away from the mottled carpet. "It can't get better?"

"Only through surgery, and we really just can't... well..." She swallows nervously. "But, anyway, there are exercizes he can do, and specific stretches. Physical therapy, on his own. He might need some help from time to time, but it's nothing extravagant. I was thinking you could help him do some of his stretches before and after volleyball." She hands him a thick packet of paper. "I can count on you to do that, right?"

"Yes, Kozume-san," he says quietly.

Kenma hasn't said a single word since they pulled into the parking lot.

 

* * *

 

 

Kuroo watches as Kenma stretches out his leg and shifts his weight from one foot to the next, face blank. Not thrilled, but not pained.

"Kuroo, you're seen me do this a million times. I've got it."

"I know, but..."

"But nothing. I'm not a baby. I can take care of myself." The unsaid "now" at the end of that sentence hangs heavy between them, punctuated by the sounds of volleyballs smacking against hands and walls and arms and the floor.

"Alright, kitten." Kuroo presses a light kiss to the crown of Kenma's hair and jogs uneasily off.

Kenma watches him go, a bit dazed. Even after all this time, he still made sure Kenma was completely okay, which, while slightly annoying, was really just very sweet. Kenma's so distracted that he doesn't notice the stray ball flying straight towards his side until it's nearly too late, and he tries to twist away but his weight is all on the wrong foot and—

He feels a sword slash clean through his back, searingly white-hot, and he hears shouts and someone sobbing in apology and a hair-raising, high-pitched wail of pain—oh god, he made that noise himself— but more than anything, a roar of rage so unearthly it nearly makes him dissolve into a panic attack.

Kuroo.

Kuroo is _hysterical_.

"Oh my god, kitten, Kenma, where does it hurt, baby tell me where it hurts, can you talk?" He's cupping Kenma's face with trembling fingers, trying so, so hard to not grip him tightly.

"Back. Lower back. Twisted it," Kenma gasps out and then dissolves into dry sobs. He's too shocked by how painful it is to even have tears.

"Okay, okay baby don't try to move, we're getting help, alright? You'll be okay." And then he's up and _screaming_ at Lev, who must have been the one responsible, profanities and threats and utter nonsense, but somewhere along the line he has to stop because he's crying too hard.

Kenma blacks out.

 

* * *

 

 

 

He wakes up in the hospital to find his mother and Lev and Kuroo, gazing tiredly at the muted television with glazed, red-rimmed eyes. Lev notices that he's awake first.

"Kozume-san."

Kenma blinks at him.

"Kozume-san, I'm so s—"

"I forgive you."

It's Lev's turn to blink. Then he bows his head. "Thank you, Kozume-san."

"It's Kenma," he says gently. His voice is scratchy.

"Thank you, K-Kenma." Lev hastily shuffles out, head still down.

They all stare at the door as it swings quietly shut.

"He wanted to wait until you woke up so he could apologize as soon as possible," his mother informs him. "He puked nearly six times, he was so guilty."

Kenma cracks a smile. "That's even worse than Shouyou." He sits up a bit more and grimaces.

"Does it still hurt?" Kuroo's voice sounds worn-out, rough and gravelly.

"Yes, but it's a lot better." He makes himself comfortable in the pillows.

Pillows.

Hospital bed.

 _Doctors_.

Kenma immediately tenses up. "So I had to be brought here." He tries to calm his breathing.

His mother eyes him and reaches out to firmly grasp his hand. "I'm sorry, baby, but... you were in a lot of pain, so much that it rendered you unconscious. We didn't want to wait around until you woke up to see how you were. Alright? You'll be back in your own bed by tonight."

"Kuroo needs to sleep over, then," Kenma says, gripping his mother's hand a bit too tightly.

She glances at his dark-haired teammate— best friend— _boyfriend_ , but she didn't need to know that just yet (perhaps she already knew anyway)— and says, "If it's okay with his parents, then whatever you need right now will be given to you, alright baby?"

"Okay."

 

* * *

 

 

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Kuroo, it's fine. I trust you. It'll help a lot, okay?"

Kuroo looks down dubiously at the small boy sprawled on his stomach beside him, shirtless in the dark of midnight. They had finally gotten home half an hour ago— it went without saying that neither of the boys would be showing up to school for the next day or two.

"Okay." Kuroo breathes in and starts to roughly circle his callused fingertips around the base of Kenma's neck, watching carefully for any signs of pain. Kenma's lashes flutter against his pillow. Kuroo moves down between his shoulder blades, using his knuckles to loosen up a knot he finds, spreading out across his shoulders and dipping down his arms a bit before coming back up to his middle back, where he slows significantly, obviously nervous.

"I said it's okay, Kuroo," Kenma breathes. "You've already done a really good job. Just keep going."

So Kuroo keeps going, using his palms to press and knead away all the tension in Kenma's back, so endearingly careful around his previously-twisted lower back until his hands rest on Kenma's hips and the boy in question is floating somewhere between hyperalert and dreamless sleep.

Kenma's eyes snap open as Kuroo presses the first kiss between his shoulders. "Kuroo—?"

"Shh," he mumbles against his skin. "Don't tense up again, babe." He traces Kenma's spine with his fingertips and imprints kiss after kiss on each vertebrae. His large hands hit sweatpants and stop, but his mouth keeps going, right along the S-curve, until he can feel Kenma trembling with nerves and emotion. He runs his hands all over once more, smoothing out the overwhelmingness of his gesture.

"Testurou."

He settles carefully next to Kenma, still running a single fingertip up and down, up and down, lovingly tracing the curve at the bottom with extra care, gazing softly into Kenma's wide golden eyes. "What is it, kitten?"

"I love you." Kenma tries to stifle a sniffle. It doesn't work.

Kuroo kisses his nose, his forehead, his eyelids. He kisses his cheeks, kissing away the tears, and leaves a single ghost of a kiss over his lips. "I love you too, Kenma. All of you."

Kenma sighs and closes his eyes, tugging on Kuroo's shirt with a single finger. Kuroo gets the hint and presses himself against him, hand coming to a rest on that beautiful curved spine. "You really did make it better, you know," he mumbles before slipping away into the deepest sleep he's had in years.

Kuroo smiles into his golden hair and breathes, "Anything for you."

**Author's Note:**

> Scoliosis is no joke. I wrote this because I currently can't sleep, I have a terrible cramp in my shoulder blade/upper back area that just won't go away and is most definitely caused by my scoliosis. Ugh. But hey, from pain comes some of my best work. I hope you enjoyed (is that the right word here??) this story. Kuroo taking care of Kenma is admittedly one of my favourite kinds of story. Also I realized that I seem to have a thing for spines. I wonder why (~_~;)


End file.
